I'd like to thank Canada and the Canadians for letting their geese go.
We're on the flyway to the south, and our late afternoon sky is full of
flocks of Canada geese. The lowest in altitude are about ready to land for
the night, and there are more flocks stacked up to about 5,000 feet. From
my living room, I look between houses over the broad valley that Boise is
nestled in, and see these flocks come in for a meal and a night's sleep as
if there's a motel over the crest of the hill. What is over that hill is
about 100 acres of farmland with harvested corn and some 30 or 40 acres of
seedy weeds. Yum. Boise has a lot of water resources usually, and now
with melted snow there are ponds here and there over the city. You can see
Canada geese splashing and bathing a block away. Many overwinter here, but
these guys are just moving through. I have no idea where they stop their
southward journey, but they must have to turn around and start back if they
go very far.
Was it the whooping crane that's endangered and was led to migrate by a
glider of some sort? Whatever the bird, it or they did make it back to
their wintering grounds this year on their own, accompanied by sandhill
cranes.
Usually my bird posts are about raptors because Boise is home to the World
Center for Birds of Prey, where they breed peregrine falcons, harpy eagles,
California condors and other rare birds of prey. I haven't been out there
for a while, though, and the young California condors have been sent to the
Grand Canyon and released. It's a thrill to watch them, but boy, are they
ugly! Margaret L